Parula Press ~ Massachusetts
(Lisa Olson)

Little Drop of Shadow
By Lisa Olson
Belmont, Massachusetts: 2007. Edition of 10.

5.5 x 5.5"; 9 pages. In 5.75 x 5.75" paper case. Letterpress text and linocut on Somerset paper. Accordion structure glued into wrapped cover.

Text: "Dear reader, remember: a small bird casts a small shadow, a feather looks solid but it is not, trace of snail, swoop of swallow, all shimmers - now lovely, now gone. Dear reader, remember: soft secrets hide in every hour."

Lisa Olson: "In this ode to transience and absence, I hoped to create a small book that became a fleeting moment itself when read. I use the pacing inherent to a book's form and the relative emptiness of the pages to slow the reader down and create a thick fluidity to the short text."
$75

Lift
By Lisa Olson
Belmont, Massachusetts: 2006. Edition of 24.

6.75 x 10.25 "; 26 pages. Letterpress on Rives Lightweight and inkjet images on Rives Lightweight wrapped in Xuan paper. Casebound in Xuan and Hahnemühle Bugra papers.

Lisa Olson: "This book contains three texts joined by themes of human frailty. I wanted to make a book that acknowledged the profound difficulties of navigating life in a damaged condition, whether the damage be physical, mental, or social. I wanted to make a book that was soft and sad, but one that also offered support, hope and perhaps devotion."

Elizabeth Long, review JAB 23: “Life declares its theme with its cover, half a drawing of a flower buried under some semi-translucent paper: you do not see the whole, you do not see clearly. A book about shattered beings. It explores different perspectives of their experience. The text alternates voices, beginning first with a poetic description from the point of view of the mentally ill patient, then switching tone to capture the patient as seen by the clinical eye of the doctor’s observations, and finally ending with a compassionate observation of this human struggle. Throughout, the images are buried beneath accordion folds of soft, not-quite-transparent paper and leave the reader feeling as though something important has been missed, that knowledge is incomplete. The text too fades almost away in the middle section, turning a pale gray as the patients become only their external actions ‘110206/Mrs. Caroline/(at times very rational)/She is difficult to rouse / She answers ‘Yes.’ ‘No.’

“The creamy whiteness of the pages and the elegant sparsity of the text and images argue for a tenderness to be extended to these broken souls, and the book leaves the reader with the ambiguity of who it is that is seeing only in part, the patient searching for clarity or we who cannot see inside their struggles.”
$240

Tangled / Loosely Bound: A Handbook for Parents
By Lisa Olson
Parula Press, 2005. Edition of 20.

5.75 x 8.5"; 28 pages. Letterpress text and inkjet imagery on Rives Lightweight. Case bound. Illustrated paper over boards with blue cloth spine.

Lisa Olsen: " In my collection of ephemera, I have a small parenting manual written in the early 1900's and "Tangled/Loosely Bound" is my response to its content and tone. The advice given is direct — feed the child, keep him clean and warm, give plenty of fresh air, tend to illness. The tone is simple and optimistic, so touching and similar to my own understandings when I began parenting two decades ago. I have since learned that all the soap and clean water and good food and love is not always enough — as a parent we must accept only tenuous control as children navigate the large world of nature and culture and that perhaps sometimes a wish or a passion is as helpful as logical direction."
$130